I Dream and Wonder 'Why Not?'
by Autumn Ice
Summary: Ever wonder how the Tayledras first got their protective Veils? I don't think divine help would intervene that far. Here is the tragic tale behind the Veils. One-shot, therefore complete. Please R+R


**Another Hawkbrother fic from yours truly!**

**This fic takes place sometime after the Mage Wars, long enough that the Tale'edras clans are well established, but well before the founding of Valdemar.  About 900 BF, I suppose (check your books for the timeline!)**

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                Moonsong submerged herself into the Heartstone.  She felt the connection that always came when she worked with it, the feeling of being _welcome_ into the sort-of awareness that was the power of the node.  Once again, she began anew, hoping that this time she could somehow do what she envisioned.  It was frustrating to know what she wanted, but still, she couldn't help but feel she was missing something.  Something especially crucial.

She saw that the Heartstone could handle the amount of power her idea would take, but it was as if it simply _couldn't_, which make no sense at all.  She built up the safeties she always used when trying this, just in case, even though it was night in the lands the k'Sheyna Clan had taken.  They had secured this area, chosen for the number of ley-lines the area presented.

She could feel those as well, feeding into the Heartstone whose physical anchor stood in front of her.  The pillar of stone would not seem out of the ordinary to anyone without mage gifts, but to one who did, it was like standing next to the sea.  The power of the Heartstone made even the strongest of k'Sheyna's Adepts feel insignificant.  They'd had only finished securing and forming the Heartstone node less then one year ago, but the land here was stubborn, as Moonsong knew all too well.  She was one of the Adepts who Healed the land, an ability that was the centre of Tale'edras life.  She was allowed her experiments with the Heartstone precisely _because_ she was so talented, and her idea, if it worked, would be immensely helpful to the Clans.

_:Like so,:_ she explained to the Heartstone.  _:And like so.  Place this power like _this_, and weave this much like _this_.:_  She gone over it so many times she was sure the Heartstone probably already knew what she was trying to get it to do, but she took no risks when it came to this amount of power.  The net she was envisioning _should_ have worked, but once again, the power just would not form the way she wanted.

Moonsong disentangled herself quickly, but with care, from the Heartstone, releasing the power she'd borrowed, letting it flow back into the node.  Coming free, she sighed in frustration.  _Why won't it work?  The model worked perfectly, if fact, it still does!_  She stood up from the cross-legged position she'd been in, grimacing at the stiffness of her joints.

_Maybe Firechild was right after all.  Maybe grief does age you past your time_.  The thought was distant, the rest slightly clearer.  _Perhaps forty-six is good for someone not an Adept, but it should only be my prime.  But that is neither important nor pertinent._  She shoved any following thoughts out of her mind firmly.

The frustration of her failure was wearing her down, as night after night wielded the same results.  Her fellow Adepts had noticed it as well, and though they expressed their concerns with her continuing her project, she ignored them with the stubbornness she rarely displayed.  She was so preoccupied that she didn't even noticed the other person watching her, as she muttered to herself in her mind as she exited the clearing with the Heartstone.

_Oh Goddess,_ Sunfire thought to herself, from her convenient spying post behind one of the trees at the entrance to the clearing.  _She really is obsessed.  At first I didn't believe Firechild, but now I do._  She watched with worry, following the Adept until the mage reached her _e'kele_.  She sighed in relief when Moonsong entered it, apparently going to sleep, finally.

_But the question is, now what?_  Sunfire fretted, as she wandered among the barely visible paths, back to her own _e'kele_.  She was a scout, but Firechild was her brother and Moonsong's soul-sibling, and she felt obligated to help him.  _But how?_

Moonsong watched her model intently.  The miniscule net she'd conjured fell exactly over the Tale'edras camp.  She could tell that inside was regulated, just as she wanted, as well.  She dropped a small rock on top of the pale barrier, and watched in satisfaction as it disintegrated, but her satisfaction quickly disintegrated at her next thought.  _But what if that was someone friendly to us, or worse, an innocent?_  She didn't want to think of that possibility.  She wanted this to keep things out, not kill them.  And it would have to allow the Tale'edras to come and go, so of course that wasn't practical.  _Some sort of keyed spell?  Keyed to those of the clan, perhaps?_ Moonsong mused, toying with the net magically.  She was fixedly _not_ thinking about the real difficulty behind this project, instead hoping other, smaller, concerns would lead to a solution to the larger one.

_Maybe..._  She removed the net, before forming another one, slightly different in construct.  This time she firmed it a bit more, rather then draped over magical currents that fed into it.  It still used the magical currents, but as points of stability, rather then like pegs.  It was stronger, but at the same time, easier to mold and change.  She fed the _Feel_ of another stone to it, so that it would recognize it.

When she dropped it, it fell right through to the small-scale forest beneath the barrier.  _Yes!_ She exulted, pleased with her success.  She smiled to herself, finally feeling some sort of success, even though she hadn't come very far at all.  She kept testing more objects, larger, then smaller, each time with the same result.  She'd begun to key in the small mouse she's captured, but felt a wave of dizziness overcome her, and finally returned to her bed.  _Tomorrow,_ she promised herself, even as her eyelids slipped shut.

But tomorrow she had been kept out well into the night, dealing with some rogue change-creatures that had somehow thrived well after the Mage-Wars.  They'd been harassing some scouts, and she'd been closest.  But the sight of the miss-happen creatures brought a fury to her heart that few knew about, or could understand.  Creatures like these had been the ones to wipe out nearly her entire family, including her _shrey'kreth'ashke_, not long before they'd come to this site.  Her face had been completely emotionless, and that had scared the scouts she come to rescue even more then the change-creatures.

"Fireschild, she used to be one of the most carefree Adepts of our clan.  She would cheerfully lend a hand, and even then she would tease and jibe those around her.  This, this, lack of emotion scares me," Sunfire confessed to the mage, long after the rest of the Vale would normally be sleeping.

He sat on her bed, in her _e'kele_, and looked about as tired as Sunfire felt.  "I know, Sister, but I don't know what we can do.  We didn't realize that she'd taken this call for help until long after the fact, or we would've sent someone, _anyone_ else in her place."  He ran his hand through his dishelved hair, looking frustrated.  "Her experiment is giving her nothing more then just added stress, but she won't give it up."

"If she doesn't take a break soon, she will wear herself to nothing, and all of Windweaver's Healing will be for naught."  Sunfire was exhausted, and knew her brother wasn't in any better shape.  Thus, the reason she'd offered her _e'kele_ to him, rather then have him trudge across the camp to his.  _He'd probably fall unconscious half-way, leaving the poor _hertasi_ to find him in the morning, _she thought sardonically.  It wouldn't have been the first time, either.

"I think, tomorrow, we'll have to go to the Council and get them to _order_ her to take a break.  Every time _I_ try and get her to, she just shrugs it off and continues."  Firechild was clearly losing his battle to sleep, and he just barely heard his sister assent before slipping into blessed darkness.

Moonsong woke early, long before dawn, not quite as awake as she would have preferred, but still alert enough for her experiments.  As she made her way to the Heartstone's clearing, went over the feel of the camp's inhabitants, so that they would not be affected by the barrier, if it worked.  _It has to!_ she thought, desperate after all the failure.

Her mind was still numb in places after what had happened yesterday, even after her sleep.  She was moving on automatic, letting her feet take her where she wanted as her technical mind worked furiously.  She'd spent most of the night working the barrier spell to accept living beings, and had finally had success, consistently.  The changes had been subtle, ones she didn't expect, but could see the purpose of _after _a solution had been found.  _Of course, the barrier can't rely on the damned ley-lines, not if I want it to stay stable if an enemy mage gets a hold of them!  It's almost as if the Heartstone _knew_ that._  Moonsong shivered.  The prospect of a thinking Heartstone cut through her emotional numbness, and woke her from it.

Entering the clearing, with no one near, as far as she could tell, Moonsong settled herself into the familiar position before the Stone.  She calmed herself, relaxing, and sunk herself into the well-spring of power.  She shivered; the touch was disconcerting today.  Maybe it was an indication of success?

She formed the spell she'd created, reinforcing it with the images of what it _would_ look like, as well as the feel of the Veil of Power.  She gave the barrier's form a certain malleability, enough so it could be changed, but only by a few.  She also gave it a kind of near-innocence, so it would not attack animals.

_:Place this weave _here_, and this web like _so._  The Veil should _feel_ like _such_, and look like _so_.  Use the power here, form the power like this, use it, form it...:_ she continued to chant, weaving the power that she drew from the Heartstone, more power then she'd ever dreamed of before.

And it was for good reason she'd never dreamed of this power.  It was more then she cold handle, more then any one person could handle.  And Fireschild, along with all of the Vale's Adepts, could only watch with a heavy heart and soul, from the edge of the clearing.  They'd been sleeping, one and all, when the feeling of enormous amounts of power being used had shocked them awake.  There was no other possible explanation, and they had met outside of the safeties Moonsong had set, helpless to what they were witnessing.  One of the younger mages was weeping, and Firechild remembered with detachment that she also had Foresight.  Foresight...

_:Nooo!:_ he cried mentally, as the power of the Veil Moonsong was weaving firmed around them, around the k'Sheyna camp – and collapsed, unable to sustain without _more_ power to set it completely.  He, along with the other mages watched in horror as the power came _crashing_ back, forcing its way through Moonsong, back into the Heartstone node, burning through her like a tidal wave of incredible power.  The Heartstone flickered, first mutedly, then increasingly brighter, as all the power drained from it returned.

The magical safeties disintegrated, allowing the mages through.  But at a terrible cost.  It was obvious, for the spells she'd set to simply evaporate, that Moonsong could no longer sustain them.  And if she could no longer sustain them...  The only possible reasons were that the ability to use and draw magic had been ripped away, or she was gone.  Completely.

"NOOOO!" Fireschild cried again, this time in grief, holding his soul-sister's limp body in his arms.  There was no way she could've possibly survived, not a chance...  His grief joined that of the other mages, a wordless keening of grief that echoed in the minds and ears of even the un-Gifted.

It wasn't until long after the sun had risen that Firechild was able to move, to break free from his grief.  All around him he saw Adepts in no better condition then he.  To lose one of their own was shocking enough, but in such a way...  "She forgot how much one can handle alone..." he muttered, nearly inaudible, and entirely for his own benefit.  But strangely, it didn't seem to ease any pain.

"Brother, you have to shake out of it," someone begged from beside him.  He turned glassy eyes on his sister, who had been the one to wake him in the first place.  "You can't bring her back, but you can't stay like that."  She pointed to the others, and he saw now that they too were being helped by family and friends.  "Everyone now knows what happened, apparently Treeswind didn't get as caught as the rest of you.  I don't know.  She was still on the edges of the clearing."  He saw the girl-mage with Foresight, Treeswind, sitting close by, staring at both the still flickering Heartstone, as well as Moonsong's pale body.

Treeswind spoke, suddenly, and barely loud enough for him to hear.  "Do it, soul-sibling.  You know what to do, now _do _it!" she screamed now, eyes wide and vacant.  He could recognize the effects of a vision as well as the next mage, by why now?

_:Because you must do it _now_,;_ a faint voice whispered in his mind; a beloved voice.  _:You have the knowledge, now use it!:_  Fireschild barely had enough time to identify the voice when information was _shoved_ into his mind.  Information of the barrier.

_:Do it,:_ Moonsong's faint voice urged.  He felt it getting fainter.

_:Yes:_ he mind-whispered, and linked to the waiting mages.  Somehow, they had know what to be waiting for, and let him lead, using the strange information.

With all the power of the Clan k'Sheyna, Fireschild wove and formed, letting the information, the knowledge, as well as the fading gold-presence in his mind guide him.  He Saw what the Veil was to look like, and passed it on to the Heartstone, using the waiting energies.

Again the Veil formed, keyed to the inhabitants, but this time, it stayed.  For a last, crucial moment, a tiny bit of magic was trickled into the meld, and the barrier around their heads, spreading out, and encompassing the camp, _held_.  The extra magic faded, leaving only a golden feeling to the tickled the minds of the Clan.

Fireschild wrenched himself out the meld, feeling the others do the same.

And as one, the people and creatures of clan k'Sheyna gazed up and around, at the faint Veil that now protected them from the outside world.  The giant, flickering tribute to Moonsong, Adept class mage who many had considered more then half-mad, but who had been, most likely, the most brilliant of them all.

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**Mwaha.  I'm going to leave it there.  I think you get the drift of where it'll go anyways.  Please R+R?**


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